Real Woman Poem by Jack Turner

You are not real to me; I don't think
you ever were.

You weren't real in the cold October
You were a dream in the fallen leaves
You were
a fantasy girl, a pirate queen,
a flash within the breeze
You were a dream
by the raging, homely fire, spouting
poetry and art
and drink.

Sometimes, I think it was the drink.

You were a vision, a
miracle, and I could never
capture that.

I am only human.

Perhaps you are more real now
In the blazing of the spring

More real now I see you
Only in my dreams.

You are not real to me; those looks, those words
Were wild fabrications in my mind
You were a dream in the autumn frost
You were a dream in a paradise lost
You were not real to me.

And every day you are not real
And every night you are not real
memories, memories
Memories and dreams.

Out there, somewhere, in the Big Bad World, the photographs
And memories are proof
but
You are no more real now as then
Or as the darling dreams of youth.

You are not real

You are not

You are

You